I did some work on my symbol ideas. The health and food one is based on the cross often associated with health - like the Red Cross - and healthy foods that people need to be able to meet their basic needs. I created some iterations of the concept. Looking at the image, I lean toward the top left (the cross with the giant carrot) and the one directly below (the cross with simplified food images in the spaces between the cross)
With the race symbols, I had created a circular 'scale' in an earlier sketch. Erica seemed to like the idea of the scale in circular form more than the scale shown in the bottom picture. My thinking behind the race issue is that there needs to be an equality conveyed - that we are all equal. Within KC, I often think of places like Troost and the Argentine, places where an obvious divide is seen between races. Troost acts as a dividing line between white and black and the Argentine is a predominantly Hispanic driven community, lacking education and resources. At the same time, we see these neighborhoods with a concentration of a single race living in harder conditions, but poverty isn't racist. It affects anyone. It doesn't care what color your skin is. One of the symbols I like most right now is the bottom left one - I have reservations though with how there are different 'levels' coming out of this circle. I like the way it looks but I'm not confident in how it conveys equality. I'm also interested in the top most symbol I drew. I don't think it's quite 'there' yet, but I can see it in my head as being a symbol that does convey what I want it to, with a little more work.
I don't have a larger image of the plaza concept right now. What I would really like to do is go take some pictures on the Plaza. The last few days have not lent themselves to being able to do that yet.
Erica and I also talked some about the sustainability symbol I drew as being a potential option. I haven't really explored it much yet (I was pretty set on the Plaza/class idea) but I think it would be a good idea to do so and see where it might go.
hey tucker, thanks for all of the commentary and process thoughts. i will try to give my own interpretation each of these signs.
ReplyDeletefor the top one, i get the idea of "food health"; that fresh foods can keep a person physically healthy. i agree that the two most successful signifiers you have are the top left two. formally, you could make the cross and carrot fit together better, but i think the middle one is stronger, because it allows you to show a greater diversity of foods. it gets away from saying "carrots are healthy". i recommend choosing foods with silhouettes that are distinct and recognizable.
on the next one, i am reading "differences within a whole" (circle divided into fourths) and something like "diverse and unequal parts within a whole" (bottom left circle with larger/smaller pie slices). the top circle with four crescent shapes around it is pretty highly coded and definitely symbolic-looking, so i'm less sure of its meaning. but it looks like four similar characters/shapes gathered around a central figure that's unifying everything. the outer shapes are brought together around a unifying figure. ??
the last one is much more pictorial and will probably need to be brought more in line with the simplicity of the other two. i see the panhandler on the sidewalk (a clear icon) i see potentially homeless guys of different races ("homelessness affects blacks and whites alike"). but it sounds like you are still trying to make decisions on your third sign.
for wednesday (and this post) you should have had landed on one sign for each concept, so you are behind the schedule in terms of what i see here. you need to get your final signifiers figured out, as well as your third concept/signified, and then get rolling on the ideas for connotations. directions on those are due wednesday.